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Sunday, 11 June 2017

Holidaymakers facing rising costs as a result of falling pound following Brexit

Customers buying holidays through Thomson owner TUI will have to pay more due to the fall in the pound following the Brexit vote, the company has said.

TUI chairman Klaus Mangold says a double whammy of the decreasing buying power of sterling combined with rising prices in holiday destinations will hit tourists.

He said: "We are trying to avoid this, but sometimes we cannot avoid it.

"Italy, Spain, Greece are increasing their prices so they (UK travellers) are suffering two-fold.

"One is by the currency issue and second is the increase of prices in the country of destination.

"So you have to compensate it and I believe that we are making major efforts to do this and to make sure that... we can offer our customers a reasonable pricing as far as destinations are concerned."

The pound has fallen from €1.30 just before the EU referendum to around €1.13 on Friday - a drop of 13%.

Data from Hotels.com earlier this year found that Britons paid on average 9% more for a room in the most popular European destinations in 2016 compared with the year before.

Thomas Cook, meanwhile, said in February that the average cost of its getaways would rise by an average of 9% compared with the year before.

Mr Mangold was cautious about giving a time frame for the price rises at his company as it would try to absorb as much of the cost as it could.

"It's a very limited number," he said. "So it's not something where we say, 'Okay, we have to give everything to the customers which is linked with increases in prices, which we are taking on as well.'"

But he said the company has already noticed Britons reducing the length of their holidays as a result of rising inflation, with trips now being two to three days shorter on average.